Racial politics energize the Republican base, Charles M. Blow writes in his New York Times column. This explains why GOP presidential hopefuls Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum resorted to hurling racist stereotypes just before the Iowa campaign, he writes. The move played well with conservatives for Santorum, who came in a close second.
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As weโve gotten around to casting votes to select a Republican presidential nominee, the antiblack rhetoric has taken center stage.
You just have to love (and despise) this kind of predictability.
On Sunday, Rick โThe Roosterโ Santorum, campaigning in Iowa, said what sounded like โI donโt want to make black peopleโs lives better by giving them somebody elseโs money. I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money.โ At first, he offered a nondenial that suggested that the comment might have been out of context. Now heโs saying that he didnโt say โblack peopleโ at all but that he โstarted to say a wordโ and then โsort of mumbled it and changed my thought.โ
(Pause as I look askance and hum an incredulous, โUh huh.โ)
Newton Leroy Gingrich has been calling President Obama โthe best food stamp presidentโ for months, but after plummeting in the polls and finishing fourth in Iowa, he must have decided that this approach was too subtle. So, on Thursday in New Hampshire, he sharpened the shiv and dug it in deeper, saying, โIโm prepared, if the N.A.A.C.P. invites me, Iโll go to their convention and talk about why the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps.โ On Friday, Gingrich defended himself, as usual, by insisting that exactly what he said wasnโt exactly what he said. He was advocating for African-Americans, not disparaging them โฆ
Read Charles M. Blowโs entire column at the New York Times.
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